Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes (11 April 1862-27 August 1948) was Governor of New York (R) from 1 January 1907 to 6 October 1910 (succeeding Frank Higgins and preceding Horace White), US Secretary of State from 5 March 1921 to 4 March 1925 (succeeding Bainbridge Colby and preceding Frank Kellogg), and Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court from 13 February 1930 to 30 June 1941, succeeding William Howard Taft and preceding Harlan Stone.

Biography
Charles Evans Hguhes was born in Glenn Falls, New York in 1862, and he studied for an LL B at Columbia in 1884, became a successful member of a New York City law firm, and in 1906 was elected state governor as a Republican Party member. From 1908 to 1916 he served as a member of the federal US Supreme Court, but resigned to run in 1916 as the Republican candidate for President. Defeated by Woodrow Wilson, he served as Secretary of State from 1921 to 1925 under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, when he urged US entry into the League of Nations, negotiated a separate peace treaty with Germany, and hosted the Washington Conference of 1921-2, which achieved some naval limitation. His career was crowned by his years as Chief Justice, during which he enhanced the efficiency of the federal court system, and gave firm support to the freedom against state actions guaranteed to the citizen under the First Amendment. He was largely responsible for defeating a plan of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937 to "pack" the court by adding to it extra liberal hustices to counter sitting members over 70 years of age who refused to retire. At the same time his court supported a number of New Deal proposals, such as the Social Security Act. He retired in 1941 and died in 1948.